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Ah, What is the world coming to! Is no-one willing to share with a young, eager, hard-working student?

*sigh* Iowa sucks.

-Blake

I spent 9 years in Ames, Iowa. I learned lots of good martial arts there. Swine jujitsu bailed me out some very nasty places. corn-plucking-fu taught me to be very good a blocking. snow-shoveling-do shown me the way of freezing my breath in mid-air.

I always wondered why someone would want to train in a system that does not take easily to a given area?

Kind of like using exotic herbs..

The vibrational energy of an area attracts certain things. It seems to repell others. Why contend with such a Tao? The wrestlers in Iowa make great Judo make players. I bet the Judo there is exquisite.

My Judo teacher, Hal von Luebbert, was from Iowa. He is one of the few folks that can document that he fought over 1,000 organized bouts by the age of 55. He's now 72. When he was 66, he won his 3rd national championship. Tough critters live in Iowa.

Yeah, we got some good wrestlers, some okay karate, and a boat-load of taekwondo *shudder* We are the TKD capitol of the world, I think.

Ah well, At least I get to practice my rooting skill on charging hogs and practice my fajin on sleeping cows.

Maybe life is good...

-Blake

I hate those NCAA wrestlers. half of the team were taking Judo. They were relentless. I was tired of losing to them so I switched over and studied TKD and Hapkido. of course, in TKD I ran into the twin brothers who can throw axe kicks faster than I can throw a jab. Kept running into freaks of nature.

I remembered getting kicks by dairy cows in Minnesota which taught me quite a bit about ukemi on the prairie. Ellis Amdur said that you should not slap the floor when you take ukemi. Very sensible advice, especially when you in a barn full with manure.

During the turn of the century and up until about 1920, (i belive) we had a big upsurge in catch-as-catch-can wrestling events in the U.S. Those events were real and much like the floavor of this decade (MMA).

But the guys were a different breed. They were sinewey, lean, weighing about 165-175 pounds. They could fight for hours.

Many were farmboys. Makes you wonder if their tendon and ligament strength came from using a horse and plow?

Boy have we as city-boy machnie- addicted humans changed since then...

I was in Bettendorf, Iowa, once! Saw a fabulous John Deere showroom there. And I buy my chickens from Murray McMurray, another Iowa institution. Iowa is one of America's last, great hopes for an agrarian society -- a way of life that is underrated and even treated derisively by today's urbanites and Metrosexuals, but which is our nation's backbone and root to the ground . No ability to support ourselves without it.

Oh, and there's a town in Iowa called Goldfield. How could I not love a state with a town named Goldfield?
Back to shoveling snow here in New England, where the storm is just hitting.

Hi Chris,
Read your article, yes I do the same type of thing for stick, knife, sword and staff, I begin with a basic sequence of cuts and blocks, 1 to 6. then progress using combinations of 3 (1,2,3. 4,5,6)
then begin random attacks, quickly followed by a counter of 2/3 cuts/strikes/thrust.
in addition to the sword V sword, I also use;
Sword V Double stick (or machete, machete and knife)
Sword V Long staff or (spear)
Just to keep you occupied, when you get bored with this, you can throw in multiple opponents with various weapons.

Happy training.

PS I developed this type of training from 1985-94 as part of my own syllabus